Menopause… All of a sudden you feel hot, you feel heat raging through your body as your face reddens and you begin to perspire. Sometimes it feels like fire shooting through your veins as anxiety slaps your brain. It’s called a hot flash and most every middle aged woman experiences this transient, uncomfortable sensation.

What causes this? A basic explanation is the drop in estrogen, which naturally occurs with menopause. If you go to your doctor, more than likely he or she will prescribe HRT or hormone replacement therapy.

Unfortunately a few women suffer from extreme menopausal symptoms. Thus prescribing HRT may actually be necessary, because nothing else has worked. However HRT should be your last alternative because this therapy can lead to other problems down the road, such as an increased risk of breast cancer.

Thus it’s in your best interest to try natural alternatives before starting HRT. For quite a few women, natural alternatives work just as well, plus natural alternatives allow you side step the increased risk of developing cancer.

QUESTION If low estrogen is the total cause of hot flashes, why are some women not bothered much with hot flashes, while other woman suffer life disruption due to severity and frequency of hot flashes?

ANSWER Let’s start with understanding more details concerning hot flashes. “The part of your brain that regulates temperature responds to both estrogen and adrenaline (a stress hormone from your adrenal glands). We know that if the adrenaline level is normal (ie. low), then your estrogen level can be high or low, it doesn’t matter – you won’t flash. However, if the adrenaline level is chronically high (i.e. you spend a lot of time stressed out), any drop in the estrogen level will trigger a flash.” www.doctoroz.com/videos/functional-medicine-approach-menopause

If you are a person that:

Has a lot of stress in your life and/or

Experiences more anxious than most people and/or

Consumes a diet high in sugars and starches

It’s likely that you’ll have more difficulty with menopause hot flash management, especially if you lead a stressful life and/or endure a poor diet. Sometimes managing our stress and anxiety level is not within our capacity. However if you can manage to at least lower some stress in your life, of course you should implement such changes, as this will also improve your happiness and quality of life.

Dietary changes are easier to implement, especially if the foods taste good! An easy way to change your diet to help reduce hot flashes due to menopause is to eat more tofu.

“Soy has been shown to be helpful in alleviating the symptoms associated with menopause. Soy foods, like tofu, contain phytoestrogens, specifically the isoflavones, genistein and diadzein.” In a woman’s body, these compounds behave like estrogens and thus, hot flashes maybe reduced. www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=111

Believe it or not, tofu takes on the flavor of what it’s exposed to, in other words, if you cook the tofu in a particular sauce, the tofu will taste just like that sauce.

CAUTION When you add tofu to your diet, make sure it’s organic.

If tofu is not organic, it’s likely that the soy plant has been bathed in pesticides and studies point to the fact that the more pesticides you consume, the more likely you will increase your risk of developing cancer. So stick to organic tofu! www.soyinfo.com/haz/gehaz.shtml

]]>https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/menopause-hot-flash-battle-plan-recipe/feed/1medicaltourism4allMopo Tofu SauceMan Lucky Not To Be Americanhttps://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/man-lucky-not-to-be-american/
https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/man-lucky-not-to-be-american/#respondTue, 13 Mar 2012 17:44:15 +0000http://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/?p=140]]>Have you ever watched the television show, Bizarre ER? This show reveals the most unusual cases presented to emergency rooms around the world.

Last weekend a show aired that was filmed in Great Britain. A middle aged gentleman was in an unfortunate car accident that resulted in his car flipping over and dragging along the road on car’s roof top.

The car was a convertible, so of course the cloth roof top was tore away immediately, and the man’s head was dragged on the concrete, tearing off his scalp and grinding down his skull bone.

A couple of weeks after initial ER treatment, it was obvious that without cosmetic treatment and surgery, this man would be forced to live with an oddly shaped head and skull due to a 2 – 3 inch bald area with a slight indentation. His only chance at looking normal again would be cosmetic treatment that involved stretching his scalp skin to be surgically attached over the damaged area.

The doctors surgically inserted two balloons under his scalp skin, one on each side of the top of his head. Over a short period of time the doctors slowly filled the balloons with saline, forcing the skin on his scalp to stretch.

After a few weeks, the man had a final surgery that involved removing the balloons. Then the doctors pulled the stretched skin over the damaged area of his scalp and stitched the stretched skin together.

Several months later the man presented his scalp with his hair grown back. Unless he separated his hair to reveal the slight scar, one would never be able to detect that this man suffered a traumatic accident that literally tore off part of his head.

As I watched this, I was reminded that this gentleman probably only paid his monthly fee due to Britain’s single payer health care system, which is far less than most health insurance companies charge each person or family per month. More than likely he also did not pay co-pay or deductible. The entire United Kingdom has a single payer health care system with a main focus of allowing their citizens to receive needed care and it’s operated NOT for profit to help hold down the price of care.

In the USA, health insurance companies generally do not cover anything that is “not medically necessary” or cosmetic in nature. Therefore had this gentleman been an “Average Joe” American, more than likely this cosmetic procedure would not have been available to him, because he wouldn’t have tens of thousands of dollars to pay for such a procedure. But Americans finally have a lower costing choice called medical tourism.

Medical tourism is the act of obtaining American quality treatment in another country. The only difference is the cost is typically sixty percent less compared to prices in the USA. Even when you factor in travel costs for two, you still saves big bucks compared to the cost of treatment in the USA.

If you are ever interested in using medical tourism for non-emergent care, you would be wise to use a medical tourism services company to help you uncover the highest quality of care overseas. Throw in medical tourism insurance to cover unexpected rare events, such as complication, you have nothing to loose, yet thousands of dollars to save.

Because most people cannot afford the high cost of health care prices demanded in the USA, medical tourism is a lower costing option that is finally available.

Recently we been experiencing an intensive amount of solar activity from the Sun, called Solar Flares.

This source of energy definitely has an effect on various sources of communication such as radios and cell phones. So it seems obvious that a few humans might feel the effects of a solar flare hitting our Earth.

How do solar flares affect humans? I’m not sure this phenomenon has ever been studied. However if you work in an Emergency Room, any nurse or doctor will tell you that the full moon has a definite effect on some people and their behavior. Therefore if an energy source is strong enough to interrupt radio communication, common sense will tell you that a few people may also feel the result of solar flare.

Remember what happened years ago? “In 1989, a strong solar storm destroyed a transformer in Quebec and left 6 million people without power for nine hours” Click here for details.

If an energy source is strong enough to knock out a transformer, why wouldn’t this same energy alter humans in some way?

Should you worry? No, because most people will not notice any difference, just like most people are not affected by a full moon.

However a few people may be more sensitive to solar flares. If you feel you are being affected, it might help to drink a little more water to assist your body in flushing out any irritants.

]]>https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/yes-solar-flares-may-affect-your-body/feed/6medicaltourism4allSolar FlareSolar Flarehttps://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/solar-flare/
https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/solar-flare/#commentsThu, 08 Mar 2012 15:44:10 +0000http://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/?p=126]]>]]>https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/solar-flare/feed/2medicaltourism4allSolar FlareMedical Tourism – Surgery Abroadhttps://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/medical-tourism-surgery-abroad/
https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/medical-tourism-surgery-abroad/#commentsFri, 10 Feb 2012 22:22:00 +0000http://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/medical-tourism-surgery-abroad/]]>Medical tourism is becoming popular in the USA, because having surgery abroad is a cost saving alternative due to the fact that the price of health care in the United States has become cost prohibitive.

Numerous Americans still have the outdated idea that only in the USA can competent care and treatment be received. It’s true that there are some places in the world one would want to avoid if possible, but that certainly does not hold true for every place in the world outside of the United States.

Regardless of preconceived notions, numerous hospitals abroad have attained accreditation from Joint Commission International. This independent non-profit organization makes sure hospitals abroad meet or exceed specific standards of quality and safety. This includes stringent requirements that all doctors, nurses and other health care professionals have received proper advanced education and training before becoming employed with the hospital abroad, just like we mandate in the U.S.A.

So what treatments are available overseas? Most any surgery or treatment can be obtained outside the United States, with typical, average savings usually amounting to at least 60%. This includes travel costs, accommodations, lodging, etc.

]]>https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/medical-tourism-surgery-abroad/feed/1medicaltourism4allmedical tourism - medical money imageIs it Ethical to Discuss Medical Tourism With Your Patient?https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/is-it-ethical-to-discuss-medical-tourism-with-your-patient/
https://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/is-it-ethical-to-discuss-medical-tourism-with-your-patient/#respondThu, 09 Feb 2012 14:54:10 +0000http://medicaltourism4all.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/is-it-ethical-to-discuss-medical-tourism-with-your-patient/]]>The growing popularity of medical tourism among the American people as a lower cost alternative to medical care in the United States has inspired some questions in the medical community.

Medical tourism enables people to obtain American quality health care for less than half of what it would cost in the United States, by traveling to other countries that have fully accredited hospitals that offer the highest quality health care.

What if you, as a nurse or doctor, are chatting with a patient who desperately needs a knee replacement and they tell you they simply cannot afford the surgery unless they take out a 2nd mortgage on their home?

Do you feel comfortable telling them about the option of medical tourism? If you work in a hospital, you might feel such a discussion would take business away from your employer. Yet as a health care professional, you are dedicated to doing what is in your patient’s best interest.

A knee replacement, which typically costs around a total of $40,000 in the U.S.A., will only cost around $12,000 abroad. When you include travel expenses, lodging, and physical therapy before returning home, the price on average is still around 60% less than the same treatment in the United States.

Click here to review a chart lists a few examples of procedures with typical costs. Notice how the costs in the United States are so much higher than the rest of the world.

Upon researching health care alternatives outside the United States, you’ll find that many Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospitals exist just a few hours away from the United States by airline. JCI accreditation means that all doctors and nurses have met or exceeded the same educational requirements, as well as safety and quality standards demanded in the USA. The only difference is cost.

As an advocate for your patient, it should always be your intention to do what is in their best interest and present all the alternatives. Does this include informing your patient about medical tourism?